


Cold Right To My Bones

by superfandomqueen



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Disassociation, Hurt/Comfort, Langst, M/M, Rebel Lance, Torture, hallunications, langstronexchange2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27208411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superfandomqueen/pseuds/superfandomqueen
Summary: Lance froze, reluctantly opening his eyes and prepared himself for an enemy. He swallowed, the metallic tang of blood still rich in his mouth. Gulping again, Lance forced himself to steady. Cold seeped into his hand.
Relationships: Lance (Voltron)/Matt Holt, Matt Holt/Lance
Comments: 2
Kudos: 73
Collections: Langst Halloween Exchange 2020





	Cold Right To My Bones

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hauntedwintersweets](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Hauntedwintersweets).



> A big thank you to my beta, idioticfangirl!
> 
> This fic is for the Langstron Halloween Exchange, I hope its Halloween-y enough. My giftee is: Hauntedwintersweets. I hope you enjoy.

Lance leaned into the wall as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to block out the images. He only succeeded in making the scent even stronger; death and blood. Gagging, he covered his mouth.

Pressing his hand against the wall, Lance slid it along as he walked. He peeked out from time to time, just to keep himself from tripping over the bodies. Lance felt his stomach rebel and he paused, fighting to keep his food down. His hand clenched tighter on his short knife. Somewhere along the way, he had lost his blaster and his small laser gun.

He had to find the team.  _ What happened to them? Where are they? _

There were steps.

Lance froze, reluctantly opening his eyes and prepared himself for an enemy. He swallowed, the metallic tang of blood still rich in his mouth. Gulping again, Lance forced himself to steady. Cold seeped into his hand. 

Light brown hair popped around the corner. Lance flinched as the head turned toward him, honey brown eyes widening at the sight of him. Lance could see himself through their eyes; blood splattered uniform with tears, face littered with bruises and mostly covered with blood, hair standing every which way, and broken bodies at his feet.

He wanted to hide. To cover the unpleasant parts from the only other human in the rebels. His only friend left from Earth. Lance felt a tight twist in his chest. The last thing he wanted to do was disappoint, or even scare, Matt.

Lance knew he had to have bombed that. He had become a ruthless killer, no matter what the reasons were that was a fact. A tremble ran through his hands as Matt stepped over the bodies, seeming to completely ignore them.

“What have you done?” Matt’s face contorted into an unreadable expression -- or perhaps Lance just didn’t want to read it. “Where is your team?”

“They’re not my team.” The words tumbled past his lips. Matt’s first question bounced around his head. The second was easier to answer; Lance didn’t have a team. Not anymore.

Matt rolled his eyes in annoyance, he was still approaching. Lance stepped back, he didn’t want Matt to be annoyed at him too. “You made a mess.”

Lance looked down, the body at his feet. He couldn’t even see what their face looked like, it was destroyed. On the one next to that one the head was caved in. Stumbling away from them, Lance felt his hand slip.

He fell into the wall, right over one of the bodies. Scrambling back further, a sob stuck in his throat. 

“I-I did this?” Lance questioned, already knowing somewhere in his mind that he was the cause of the carnage.  _ But how? There wasn’t even supposed to be this many people on this ship? It was just a small information grab mission. Matt was still on some other--  _ Lance’s head shot up, his eyes staring wide at Matt. “Why are you here?”

“What are you blabbering about now?” Matt snapped, his tone dripping with venom. Lance flinched, but kept looking at his only friend.  _ Were they friends at all? _

“Y-you were on a different mission. You weren’t supposed to get back for vargas. When did you get here?” Lance blinked, pain now registering. Looking at his hand, he saw that there was a long cut across the palm of his hand. “How--”   
  


“Oh, so you were taking the chance while I was gone to make a mess.” Lance could hear a sneer in Matt’s voice, but he was too busy staring at his hand to respond.  _ Where did I get this from? _ He studied the wall, it was smooth. There were no bumps or dips, nooks or anything. “Are you even listening?”

Matt’s hand touched Lance’s face, jerking from the touch he hit the wall again. Staring wide-eyed at Matt, the tech genius was now frowning at him. His calloused hand touched Lance’s face again, this time the ex-paladin didn’t flinch if only because he was too shocked to move. The background behind Matt went fuzzy, a sudden pain zipping through Lance’s head.

Matt’s frown became concerned. 

Lance leaned into Matt’s hand, the familiar callouses scratching against his cheek. Closing his eyes, the pain in his head lessening.

“Look at me,” Matt growled out. Reluctantly, Lance opened his eyes. But another face caught his attention.

The face stared back at him, something was familiar about it. Dark amber eyes dull with death, expression stuck in surprise, a fresh cut across their cheekbone, and, Lance’s eyes wandered down to the Galra soldier’s chest, a gapping hole in their chest. His chest hitched as recognition clicked in. 

It was the Galra soldier he had shot in the chest in the surveillance room. Three phoebs before.

Lance blinked furiously, but the face stared the same. The Galra’s face was achingly young. They couldn’t have been much older than him.

“Look. At. Me.” The words were ground out, stabbing at Lance. Yet, he obeyed. “Focus. On. Me.”

As Lance tried to follow the order the sharp pain came back. He flicked his eyes away from Matt, the pain easing. Matt moved Lance’s head, so it was in line with Matt’s.

“Look at me.” The words sounded almost… off. Like the words were coming through a tunnel. Lance’s eyes coming back to Matt’s. The piercing pain stabbed into his head, but Lance forced himself to keep looking at Matt anyway. “Hey, you there?”

The words were soft, sweet with worry. On the opposite end of the spectrum from Matt’s previous words. Lance felt a tear slide down his face from growing migraine. 

“How are you feeling?”

Lance choked on the answer, his body ached at the question. As if they were the magic words, all kinds of pain ignited over his body, testing his rather high pain tolerance as he practiced his breathing exercises.

As his eyes began to slip closed, Matt tapped his cheek and spoke, “Hey, hey, eyes on me, alrighty?”

Lance nodded, his eyes blurring momentarily. A sinking feeling joined in on the party in his stomach.

“What’s wrong?”

Lance gulped, now not daring to look away from Matt. Even if he wasn’t real. “There...there was supposed to be a type of alien that was on the ship the team of rebels was going to…” Lance trailed off, thinking back to the information that the Leader had supplied before the mission. “They can make you… hallucinate, I guess is the word.”

It was more complicated than a simple hallucination. It was more like an entire reality built into their victim’s head, created from the victim’s memories to manipulate them for information. Whether it be a nightmare, or a daydream sort. The Leader had pressed it into them that they were not to be caught, because they would be lost. Being saved from that was all but impossible.

Another tear ran down his face. Matt’s thumb caught it, brushing it away. His expression was pained, like he had just realized he was the one that was so completely screwed instead of Lance. But maybe it was for Lance.

Maybe those previous words were the fake reality instead of actually Matt.

Lance sure hoped that was the case.

“I don’t know what’s… what’s real,” Lance got out, just before a small sob escaped. The tremors came back with vengeance as Lance tried to get his breathing under control.

_ What happened to the team? Please let them be okay. _

Matt nodded, his eyes shedding their own tears. “What is the last  _ real _ thing you remember?”

Lance searched his memories.There was the debriefing, but that was before the mission. “The mission,” Lance offered. “I got split off from the team.”

It had all gone to shit. The four man team he was backing up had ended up in the middle of an ambush. Lance lost sight of them within minutes of the fight. Every enemy he dropped, three seemed to replace them.

He could vividly remember sinking a knife into one of their ribs and them slumping down. Then… then it had gone dark. Lance searched, desperation hitting him in the chest as nothing but blank came up.

Lance moved his hands. Or rather,  _ tried _ to move them. He tried to twist them, something bit into his raw flesh. Lance tried to look down, to see what was holding them. But there was nothing there.

“Hey,” Matt said, his other hand cupping Lance’s other cheek. “Keep looking at me. Please.” Breathing in shakily, Lance looked back at Matt. Matt offered a small smile. “Hey, good job. You just have to keep still.”

_ Should I listen to him?  _

Matt carefully brushed his thumbs over Lance’s cheekbones. The cut on his hand drew Lance’s attention as it started to sting more than before. Swallowing thickly, Lance clenched and unclenched his hands.

“Are you real?”

“I am real,” Matt said.

Lance searched Matt’s eyes. “How do I know you are telling the truth?”

Matt’s eyes flicked away from his for a moment, removing one hand from Lance’s cheek. Lance wished he had kept it there even if he was a figment of Lance’s imagination. A second later, a hand tightly gripped Lance’s. The honey brown eyes were back on his.

Lance felt, but couldn’t see, his hand move. The other hand twisted around it and pressed Lance’s pointer and middle finger to the underside of a jaw. A very human feeling jaw. A fast pulse pumped beneath his two fingers.

The world around Matt started to fuzz and cracks appeared. In a blink, it was gone. Replaced by a dimly lit room.

Matt was crouching in front of him, behind the gorgeous tech genius was the members of the team Lance had been helping. Lance let out a small sob as he flicked his eyes over the four aliens, all with varying aged bruises and lacerations. His fingers still on Matt’s pulse.

“You here with us?” one of the aliens, Martek maybe, asked. Both of the rebel’s eyes were bruised a dark forest green, standing out against his teal green skin.

“If here is a shittily lit room,” Lance croaked out, his throat now aching. Not only his throat, but his whole body. “What happened?”

“We got out, but not before they got you,” a quiet voice answered. Lance knew that it was Kiloe. 

_ If you got out, why come back for me? _

Either he said it out loud, or they were all mind readers. Matt’s grip tightened on his fingers.

“I would never leave you. Never,” Matt promised, tears shining in his eyes. Mirroring Lance’s own watery ones.

“Whether or not you’re part of our team, we could never leave another at the Carleks mercy.” Lance wasn’t sure which one of them spoke. Could’ve been any of them. Whoever it was, the rest piped up in unison with their own agreement.

Lance leaned into Matt’s hand again. “Thank you for coming back for me.”

Matt squeezed Lance’s hand once, tilting forward to touch their foreheads together. “I will always come.”

It became hard to see his favorite genius as tears rolled down his cheeks. Lance gasped in breath between harsh, body wracking sobs. Matt’s hands left Lance only to wrap around him in a reassuring hug.

Lance awkwardly bent his hand to keep Matt’s pulse under his fingers as he tucked his head into the crook of Matt’s neck. Matt gave Lance a small squeeze, carefully holding him with Lance’s bruises in mind.

Matt spoke quietly, just loud enough for Lance to hear, “It might take a long while, but I will be here. To help, to be whatever you need, whenever you need me. We’re in this together.”

“Are cuddles in this deal?” Lance mumbled against Matt’s shoulder.

“Of course there will be cuddles!” Matt said, gasping as if the mere suggestion of no cuddles was atrocious. 

Lance squeezed his eyes shut, inhaling shakily. “Sounds great.” Not pulling away, Lance spoke louder, “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to be home.”

The agreement was unanimous. Matt pulled away slightly, but he kept his hands on Lance. Carefully slipping his arm around Lance’s waist and holding onto Lance’s hand was over his shoulder, Matt supported Lance’s weight. Lance leaned more into Matt, then put weight on his feet.

There was a brush of lips on Lance’s cheek, but before he could speak they were moving. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed! (Also, would anyone be interested in a version of this fic from Matt's POV????)


End file.
